General Discussion

Driving the news: DNC aides putting together the report on Harris' loss to Donald Trump had a closed-door conversation with a pro-Palestinian group about the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Activists from the IMEU Policy Project told the DNC that the Biden-Harris administration's support for Israel was a factor in the party's losses because it drained support from some young people and progressives.

Hamid Bendaas, a spokesperson for the IMEU Policy Project, said that during the meeting "the DNC shared with us that their own data also found that policy was, in their words, a 'net-negative' in the 2024 election." Two other senior aides at the pro-Palestinian organization also said the DNC had drawn that conclusion.

Axios independently verified that Democratic officials conducting the autopsy believed the issue harmed the party's standing with some voters.

The intrigue: The IMEU Policy Project is now accusing the DNC of withholding its report in part because of its findings on Israel.

DNC spokesperson Kendall Witmer denied that.

When DNC officials announced last year that they wouldn't release the audit, they said it was because they didn't want the report to distract from the work of winning elections.

What they're saying: The DNC confirmed that it spoke with the IMEU Policy Project and hundreds of others as part of its analysis and said it was grateful for the conversation but didn't provide additional details about it